No, it's not all garbage. Here are the Prime Day tech deals we actually like.

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Greetings, Arsians! Your friendly neighborhood Dealmaster is back and reporting for bargain-hunting duty—and boy, is he going to need some extra coffee. That's because today marks the start of Amazon Prime Day 2019, the increasingly misnamed sales event that sees the nation's largest online retailer discount products beyond number to Black Friday-level prices midsummer. This year's Prime Day lasts 48 hours, from July 15-16, because time is a social construct and trillion-dollar companies can pretty much do whatever they want.

Further Reading

Before we dig in to our deals roundup, a disclaimer: as is often the case with big sales events like this, most of this year's Prime Day deals aren't really deals at all. Amazon will promote thousands of "discounts" over the next two days, but with that much volume, the majority of those offers will naturally have less-than-special prices or apply to less-than-desirable products.

Many "deal prices" are relative to MSRPs that products have not sold at for months, for instance, and some companies artificially raise product prices before the event starts. (As always, price checker sites are a handy tool for verifying good deals.) Prime Day is not a "holiday" for Amazon Prime users—the only people who can take part in the event—so much as a multibillion-dollar business for a retailer looking to gin up sales during a typically slow shopping period. It's also a way for Amazon to convert more shoppers into Prime members, who are estimated to spend twice as much on the site than non-Prime users.

Further Reading

That said, there are some genuinely great deals for those in need of a particular device—you just have to know where to look. That's where the Dealmaster comes in: he's spent the past several days gathering up and verifying tech deals in preparation for the event. Below, you'll find a smorgasbord of Prime Day 2019 deals we approve of, including discounts on smartphones, PCs, monitors, headphones, laptops, and much more. You can click through the table of contents below to get to a specific section of deals, and we'll be highlighting especially good deals toward the top of our rundown. The Dealmaster will be updating this list frequently over the next two days, so if you don't see anything you like now, be sure to check back as more worthwhile deals roll in.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Top 10 deals of Amazon Prime Day 2019 (for now)

This is a new low price for Amazon's 4K- and HDR-ready media streamer, which goes for $50 but is typically discounted to $40 every few weeks. Its previous low came over the holiday season last year, when it briefly went for $35. The Fire TV Stick is more or less neck and neck with Roku's Streaming Stick+ when it comes to 4K streaming dongles—the latter has a simpler UI, the former has better voice search and Dolby Vision HDR. At $25, though, this is fantastic value.

Amazon's best value e-reader returns to its lowest price of $90 for Prime Day, but here you get more than the e-reader. Included in the sale price is a $5 ebook credit along with three free months of Kindle Unlimited, Amazon's reading subscription service. Amazon upgraded the Paperwhite, normally priced at $130, late last year with a new waterproof design and Audible audiobook integration, two of many features that make it our favorite e-reader.

Sony's PlayStation Plus online service is almost essential for most PlayStation 4 owners, and Amazon has 12-month membership codes down to $40 for Prime Day. While we've seen them hit this price at a couple points in recent months, they rarely drop lower from major retailers. Sony sells these annual subscriptions for $60 through the PlayStation Store, but they're often available online somewhere in the $50 range. Either way, this is good savings that you can tack on top of an existing PS Plus membership.

While we haven't formally reviewed the Pixel 3a, we did call it "the only Pixel phone to buy" after some extended hands-on time earlier this year. The Pixel 3a XL is more or less the same phone with a bigger display and better battery life; beyond that, you get a clean, updated version of Android, a still-top-notch camera, and an honest-to-goodness headphone jack. The plastic build and Snapdragon 670 processor keep it planted in the midrange market, but relative to other phones in that price range, it's a standout. This deal doesn't have a straight discount, but if you were thinking of buying a Pixel 3a XL anyway, it does include a $100 Amazon gift card. Amazon says shipping is pushed back by 1-4 weeks at the moment, however, so you may have to wait a little to receive the phone itself.

Garmin brought music storage to its wearables when it debuted the Forerunner 645 Music at the start of 2018, and at $300 from a typical $430, this is the lowest price we’ve seen on the midrange running watch. In addition to holding personal tracks and playlists from services like Spotify, the Forerunner 645 Music is a comprehensive runner’s tool. It tracks the usual all-day activity and heart rate stats, but also logs advanced metrics like training effect, training load, and anaerobic training effect. Music storage means you don’t have to take your smartphone with you when you go for a run, and NFC capabilities let you pay for a coffee without your wallet on your way home, too.

This is a new low price for our favorite Chromebook. Asus' Chromebook Flip normally sits in the $470 range, and we'd recommend it over most Chromebooks even at that price. With its Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of flash storage (albeit eMMC), it has the right specs to run Chrome OS well for most. Its convertible design and 12.5-inch touchscreen are well-made, too. We'll note that Asus recently updated this machine: the new C434 Chromebook Flip has a larger 14-inch display in a similarly sized chassis, and it promises better performance and a tad longer battery life. However, since the new model normally costs $549, we think the C302 is still a great deal. (That said, the C434 is currently down to $490 if you're willing to spring for a bigger notebook.)

The DeathAdder Elite isn't the most well-suited gaming mouse for the smallest hands, and its companion software can be a pain, but it still performs smoothly, has all the necessary customization options, and should be plenty comfortable for most grips. It doesn't look out of place in an office, either, provided you turn off that glowing Razer logo on its front. It's down to $35 for Prime Day, $10 off its usual price and $5 less than its previous low price.

From a pure active noise-cancelling perspective, Jabra's Elite 85h are not as capable as Sony's WH-1000XM3, but as a pair of premium Bluetooth headphones, they're commendable. Their clear and smooth sound is nice for most—even without support for higher-quality codecs like aptX or even AAC—but the two big selling points are their superb 30- to 35-hour battery life and their ultra-intuitive physical control system. And while their ANC isn't class-leading, it's still strong enough to be useful. They're $63 off for Prime Day, their first major discount from their usual $300.

One of the most popular kitchen electronics in recent memory, the Instant Pot, is on sale for $50 for Prime Day. That's a new low and between $10-20 off its usual going rate. We think the 6-quart size and the 7-mode functionality of this Instant Pot Duo 60 model makes it good for most people—it's a suitable size to make food for a small crowd, and in many different ways. (We'll note that we previously had the more featured Instant Pot Duo Plus 60 in this spot, as it was available for only $5 more, but that deal has since expired.) Kitchen equipment isn't exactly our forte at Ars, but the Dealmaster can't deny the popularity and practicality of these things.

While not a huge savings, straight discounts on the Nintendo Switch are still relatively rare. This bundle is a rehash of one Nintendo rolled out earlier this year, but it's effectively good for a digital game or two of your choosing. The console itself normally retails for $300 on its own. Just note that, if you don't plan to use the console with your TV, the newly announced Switch Lite will arrive later this year for $200.

Finally, because the Dealmaster is a company man, we've got a special 11th deal for our "top 10" list today: discounted subscriptions to our Ars Pro and Ars Pro++ services. Both Ars Pro and Ars Pro++ offer an ad-free reading experience that is also 100% free of trackers, Classic View (a throwback to the old-school Ars experience), full-text RSS feeds, premium forum access, and PDFs of all our stories.

Beyond that, Ars Pro++ subscribers also get a gift—currently a Yubikey 4 two-factor authentication device—and a special clean-reading mode that optimizes page layout for the ad-free experience. You'll also get some coupons for additional Yubikey devices so you can help family and friends keep their logins locked down. Just enter the coupon code "DIES PRIMUS MMXIX" at checkout for 20% off.